all
I have a 02 v6 s.c. when I am between 1800 and 3k light load it feels like the engine is cutting out for a second or two. I looked at the plugs and appear to be fine slightly black inside but the electrode is in good shape. the gap was at .040 to my supprise I regapped them to .031 -.032. also I cleaned the mass airflow sensor,air filter and throttle body. I am assuming it is a coil so I got a new one and swapped it out with each one but still it is dying. I check the resistance of all of the coils hot and cold primary winding and secondary all are with in .5 ohms... I am not getting any codes.
Also I drained the fuel and put fresh 93 + octaine boost in the tank.

any Ideas?

 

You seem convinced it's electrical.

Did you change the wires?

Also.......Fuel filter.

Ya, I know but they do not last forever.

 

the plug wires are 6 months old. NGK wires. fuel filter was done in Jan.
the electrical is a starting point since it is all controled by a computer.

 

My Dad's Ford years ago had the same symptoms and it turned out to be a bad plug wire. They can come out of the box bad.

Just sayin.........

 

How many miles on those plugs? They can look great but still miss under lite loads. Ford 4.6L are notorious for that. The plugs will look good and be in gap, but have an intermittant miss.

 

I think I found it..
a bad TPS I ohm out the orig and there is a spot that the resistance goes crazyfrom 400 Ohms to 1.2 then back to 420 ohms . I put my spare in and ran it so far no dying and my idle is back to 750 rpm's...
the plugs are less then a year and the wires 6 months or so.

 

That would do it.

 

welcome to the world of bad tps sensors for the 02-04 tacomas, especially for those with forced induction. You will go thru them about every year or so. Last i checked, you couldnt buy them individually, you had to buy the whole darn throttle body, at least for my old 03 dbl cab i had. Good luck.

 

That's exactly why any real tool box since the mid 90's should have an ODBII reader. This issue could have been found in under 3 minutes (literally).

 

no, actually the TPS starts to go bad before a code is ever thrown quite often. So the only real way to check is get a ohm reader and check it just like paxam did.

 

see, you haven't even seen an ODBII reader. you might have seen ODBII code readers.

An ODBII reader will show values right on the screen that the ECU sees coming off the TPS. All you do is hook it up, slowly press the gas pedal and look at the values the TPS is sending back. This test actually takes about 10 seconds to perform, if not counting the time to hook up the ODBII reader.

 

shnizzle - i learn something new everyday...

 

yeah, you could fix a Model T with a hammer. A carburetored car with a wrench set. But for the last 15 years the first tool out of the toolbox should have been an ODBII reader

 

this is good info from all of you and I learned a lot. Is it necessary to spend around $100 for one? I welcome a brand and model number and value the opinions you guys have about these matters.

 

Plenty of companies make ODBII readers, though I prefer Auterra with a handheld Palm. It will be a bit over $100, but doesn't mean you can't split that and share it with other. The economy is going down the so it's a good habit to get into anyway

 

thank you

asked and answered I like these simple threads

I appreciate the recommendation